The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s new Artificial Intelligence (AI) minor and certificate programs will be available for enrolment by students in the Core-8 and Engineering Science programs in January.

Students are required to fulfil three full course equivalents (FCE) to complete the minor, while students enrolled in the certificate program must complete 1.5 FCEs. Since a few of the courses required for the program fall out of the scope of students’ main discipline, some students may need to take extra courses to complete the requirements.

Students who complete the minor or certificate will receive a notation on their transcript.

Professor Jason Anderson from the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, a key figure behind the program, explains that all students will be required to take one foundational course, as well as courses in data structures and algorithms relevant to AI and machine learning.

Students enrolled in the certificate program can choose between traditional AI or machine learning for specialization. Students in the minor will learn about both and choose an additional area of interest to specialize in, such as computer vision or natural language processing.

Anderson explains that machine learning is one aspect of AI. In traditional AI, computers can make decisions on their own. In machine learning, computers use and learn from data to make decisions.

“The computer is actually trained to recognize images in different categories. In traditional AI, that’s more encoded in rules.”

“Students who take the certificate or minor will have hands on experience applying AI and machine learning techniques to real engineering problems,” says Anderson. In addition, students will be exposed to the ethical questions surrounding AI technology.

While there is currently no specific Professional Experience Year Co-op (PEY) opportunity for the AI minor and certificate, Anderson says that many students are already working with AI to some extent during their PEY.

Anderson also notes that AI ties in with other engineering disciplines in several ways. For instance, AI technologies can be used by civil engineers to understand traffic patterns or by chemical engineers in drug discovery.

In his own field, Anderson notes that AI technology is being used in computer-aided design tools that “create complicated digital circuits” in order “to produce higher quality designs, for example, that use less silicon area, that use less power, operate faster, to make predictions.”

“We want students who can research in this area but also have applied AI techniques,” says Anderson. Through this program, he hopes to foster engineering talent that will lead students to create startups, develop new AI technology, or further their education through graduate studies.

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